A court in Moscow, Russia has fined the Wikimedia Foundation 3 million rubles (approximately R$ 200,000) for refusing to delete articles on the platform mentioning the war in Ukraine.
Wikimedia is responsible for the management of Wikipedia, a co-authored, freely licensed, multilingual digital encyclopedia project considered one of the most accessed sites in the world.
According to local media, the country’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, called for the removal of seven publications – they informed about the war in Ukraine, the victims of the Bucha massacre and the destruction of a hospital and theater in Mariupol.
The agency disliked the use of terms such as “war” and “Russian aggression” in the texts, saying that Wikipedia “has become a new line of constant information attacks against Russians”. The organization claims that its authors “intentionally inform users with clearly false data.”
“Information is a fundamental right”
About a month ago, the Kremlin threatened to block access to Wikipedia in Russia unless the digital encyclopedia removed articles about the invasion of Ukraine from its platform, according to the BBC News Brasil news agency.
The intimidation is part of an increasingly consistent effort by the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin to censor information about the military conflict and suppress protests.
In an interview, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales advocated the use of quality factual information to combat censorship and criticized what he calls “premature and useless regulation” of the internet.
“At the heart of our mission is the idea that access to information is a fundamental human right and that sharing quality real information is always crucial,” said the businessman.
Russia’s War in Ukraine Enters Day 62; see pictures
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source: Noticias
